Print logos from the AS/400

There are 2 AFPs-- the 'free' part comes with every AS/400.

The 'U-pay' part, of course, costs extra. This piece is not necessary unless you need features above and beyond a basic overlay.

The piece you -do- need is PSF/400.

We've just finished creating overlays for a number of documents. Some of the setup is -interesting-, to say the least.

Creating Overlays:
The instructions on how to create an overlay have been here before. In summary, however: You download the Special Print Driver from IBM's web site. This driver lets you print-to-disk from just about any program. I used Paint Shop Pro for graphical overlays, and Word Pad and Microsoft Word for text overlays.

Settings for this print driver are important: You need to select MEDIUM OVERLAY, and, under the TEXT tab, UNCHECK font mapping (or whatever it is). (I have a suspicion that the font mapping may work with an *IPDS printer, but haven't had the time to try it out.)

Once you have the output file, you need to get it to your AS/400. I was able to simply copy the file from the C: drive to the I: drive, where the I: drive is mapped to the QDLS Shared Folders on our AS/400.

Then, I used the CPYFRMPCD to copy the document from a folder to a work file. It's a specific record length; I don't have the reference handy...

The file is then converted into an overlay (object type *OVL) using the CRTOVL command.

Now that the overlay exists, you need a printer and a print file.

As I understand it (based on experimental data) there are at least 3 types of print data streams the AS/400 can create:

*SCS
*AFP
*IPDS

You can have printers defined as any of these types. An *IPDS printer can print data of all 3 types, *AFP printers can print *AFP and *SCS data streams.

An *IPDS printer has one advantage for us-- it is more efficient at handling documents with overlays than *AFP. An *AFP data stream sent to a purely *AFP printer sends the overlay for each side of each page. Unless it's a locally attached printer it's s-l-o-w.

Printing an *AFP data stream on an *IPDS printer takes advantage of *IPDS's intelligence-- the overlays are sent to the printer once. An *IPDS printer can save the overlay 'beyond the end-of-job boundary,' meaning it can re-use it for multiple print jobs.

There are differences in how *AFP and *IPDS printers align documents on the page, including typeface and position.

Normally your 'variable data' and your 'overlay' are positioned on the page as a unit. You can define a margin around the page, and move the overlay Down and Across the page.

Check out Redbooks "AS/400 Printing IV" and "AS/400 Printing V" for information on a data area that lets you change the way printing happens on your AS/400.

One position of the data area will 'unlock' the overlay from the background. You can now move the 'variable data' down and across the page, - -OR- the 'overlay' down and across the page; each moving on its own, totally unrelated to the other.

In our situation we're sending *AFP data streams to *IPDS printers, which gives us the benefits of both.

- --Paul E Musselman

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